Nobel Prize Winning Former President Slams Israel as an `Apartheid State'

MAN OF PEACE VS. MAN OF WAR: Former President Jimmy Carter speaks at a public function
while a smirking President George W. Bush and a snarling First Lady Laura Bush look on. Carter, a
Nobel Peace Prize winner, has placed blame squarely on Israel’s shoulders for the seemingly unresolvable
situation still festering in Palestine. He also earned the wrath of Zionists worldwide for condemning
America’s unflinching and completely one-sided support for any and all Israeli polices —
which never seem to be in America’s best interests. . . . . RIC FELD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Jimmy Carter's new book blasts Zionist racism, power of Israeli Lobby

By Michael Collins Piper

. . .The Israeli lobby is mad at Jimmy
Carter — yet again. The former
president — a winner of the
Nobel Peace Prize — is under fire
from the Israeli lobby for comments
he made in a new, soon-to-be-published
book focusing on the Palestine problem.. . .The title of Carter’s book alone has
inflamed American Zionists. Carter’s use of
the term “apartheid” in the title Palestine:
Peace Not Apartheid effectively compares
Israel’s ongoing treatment of the Christian
and Muslim Palestinian Arabs to the former
policy of racial separation (known as “apartheid”) in South Africa, long since dismantled.. . .And as anyone who has followed the
mass media at any given time during the
last 50 years knows full well, the concept of “apartheid” has never had a favorable review.
So Carter’s use of the term to describe
Israel’s policies is a pointed one and it has
sparked heated frenzy in pro-Israel circles.. . .In his book, the ex-president also
shakes a finger at the influence of the
Israeli lobby, saying, “Because of powerful
political, economic, and religious forces in
the United States, Israeli government decisions
are rarely questioned or condemned.”
This comment alone has been
condemned by Zionist voices as reflecting
an old-fashioned “anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.”. . .Carter also riled supporters of Israel by suggesting that “Israel’s continued control and colonization of Palestinian
land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive
peace agreement in the Holy Land.”. . .Speaking on behalf of a high-level clique of Democratic
Party fundraisers who are focusing on generating Jewish
campaign contributions to the party’s coffers, U.S. Congressman
Steven J. Israel, a glib New Yorker with presidential
aspirations, denounced Carter, attacked the Palestinians
and added that the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s concerns
don’t reflect the direction of the Democratic Party. “It
reflects the opinion of one man,” asserted Israel.. . .This is not the first time that the former president has
come under fire for his criticisms of Israel. Following the
recent Israeli assault on Lebanon, Carter upset Israel’s partisans
when he said, “I don’t think Israel has any legal or
moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire
nation of Lebanon.”. . .But the truth is that Carter’s problems with Israel and its
American lobby go back to virtually the earliest days of his
presidency — a point that many Americans have never really
understood. In fact, as far back as March 2, 1978, little more
than a year after Carter was sworn in as president, The Wall
Street Journal was already noting that even though Carter
had just won 75% of the Jewish vote in the presidential election, “various events and occurrences” in Carter’s administration
had “disturbed Jews.”. . .The Journal pointed out that many key leaders in the
American Jewish community were “rethinking their commitment
to Jimmy Carter” and that some were even “talk[ing] privately about a ‘betrayal’ [of Israel by
Carter].”. . .The American Zionists were disturbed that Carter had
put pressure on Israel to stop colonizing occupied Arab territories
and had made the decision to sell advanced warplanes
to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Carter had also dared to
use the term “homeland” in reference to Palestinian aspirations —
something that, in those days — was considered a
major offense to Israel’s geopolitical demands upon the
world.. . .Citing the harsh words about Carter by several top
Jewish Democrats, the Journal said that this criticism “could
mean a great deal,” pointing out that San Francisco developer
Walter Shorenstein, one of the Democratic Party’s
major fundraisers (and a well-known supporter of Israel)
had gone so far as to ask: “Is Israel being sold down the river
by [the Carter] administration?”. . .These questions were being raised as early as 1978, as
noted, and by the spring of 1980, when Carter was seeking
renomination and re-election, the
war against Carter by Israel and its
partisans was well under way.. . .Things were so bad, from Carter’s
perspective, that — according to veteran
journalists Andrew and Leslie
Cockburn — Carter was heard to tell
senior political advisors in a private
meeting in the family quarters of the
White House that “If I get back in,
I’m going to [expletive deleted] the
Jews.”. . .According to the Cockburns, writing
in a little-noticed passage in their
1991 book, Dangerous Liaison: The
Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Relationship,
Carter’s anger at Israel and
its American supporters stemmed
not only from increasing attacks on
Carter from that corner, but, in particular,
from the fact that Carter had
discovered — through intercepts
made available to him by the
National Security Agency — that
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem
Begin was interfering in American
domestic political affairs. Begin had
been overheard advising New York
Mayor Ed Koch on how to undermine
Carter’s reelection hopes.. . .In fact, Koch later went on to
endorse Carter’s Republican challenger,
former California Gov. Ronald
Reagan whose own early rise in
both the entertainment industry (and later the political
arena) came as a consequence of his close relationship
with financial forces and organized crime interests who
were prime movers behind the Israeli lobby in America.
For more on Reagan’s little-known criminal Zionist connections,
see the shocking new book, Supermob,* by investigative
journalist Gus Russo.. . .In addition, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger —
who became a key advisor to the Reagan campaign (and
later the Reagan White House, just as he advises George W.
Bush today) — was huddling with the Israeli ambassador to
the United States, urging Israel to “organize forces in the
U.S. and Israel” against Carter.. . .In the end, with Israeli lobby forces and financial contributors
coalescing at the highest levels around Reagan,
Carter was dislodged from the White House. Since then,
Carter has won many accolades for his frank talk about the
Middle East, defying the mass media and the Israeli lobby
in the process.

.. . .* Supermob (hardback, item #1516, $38.95 — just $34.95 for
members of THE AMERICAN FREE PRESS READERSHIP COUNCIL) by Gary
Russo is a available from First Amendment Books, 645
Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Suite 100, Washington, D.C. 20003. Call
1-888-699-6397 to order by Visa or MasterCard.